Our baby, who we were told was "probably a girl" at our mid-pregnancy ultrasound was due June 9th 2009. After months of believing that I had to have a c-section due to complete placenta previa we found out via ultrasound thanks to us being at the hospital for a "false alarm" at 37w3d (one week before our scheduled c-section) that my placenta was not complete, was up and back as it was suppose to be and we did not need a planned c-section! And so we waited....and waited for labor to begin...and nothing happened. Just when I was beginning to think we would make it into the Guinness Book of World Records for longest live pregnancy, and the doctor started talking about post-term....

At about midnight on Monday June 8th I woke up like I normally did thanks to pregnancy insomnia and was watching TV on the couch (the last several weeks of pregnancy I found our bed too hard to sleep on comfortably). At 12:30 I decided to try to fall back asleep, and turned over on my left side and immediately felt and heard a little "pop" and felt wetness down below. What's really funny is that I had read and had been saying for days (weeks maybe) that the full moon can affect the amniotic bag much like it does other bodies of water, I just didn't think I would be the one to have my water break the night of a full moon! I sat up as fast as I could, then stood up, and went wake Daddy up. I was walking down our hallway like John Wayne (luckily tile) and water was pouring out of me. I opened the bedroom door and called his name from the thresh hold, waited a couple seconds and then said "my water just broke." Still half asleep he said "No it didn't." to which I answered calmly "YES it did." He shot out of bed, asked me if I was OK, I said yes then he said he was calling his mother. I waddled off to the bathroom to try to clean myself up. I put on new pants, underwear, and a pad...which did nothing to slow the flow. I debated taking a shower but decided against it (looking back I would have felt a lot "cleaner" had I of taken a shower) after nothing besides sitting down being able to slow the flow I finally decided to walk around with a towel between my legs to try to minimize Bela having to go behind me to wipe up the fluid. Waiting for his mother to arrive, he woke R up to let her know what was happening, loaded whatever wasn't loaded into the van, I called my OB to let him know and he called L&D to let them know we were on the way. Walking around I felt some discomfort I guess because the cushion the fluid provided her wasn't there anymore so eventually I sat down on a towel and just waited. I had a couple of contractions but nothing that hurt and nothing at regular intervals.

His mom got to our house at about 1:00am, aside from a few short instructions we were on our way and arrived at the hospital at about 1:30am. Luckily I had one of those blue absorbent mat things from our son's birth that they use in the hospital and put that under me in the van. The main entrance was closed to Béla pulled into the emergency drop-off, got a wheel chair, wheeled me in, and went to park the car. The nurse at the desk got my basic information and called up to L&D.

When B came back to the ER we went up to L&D, and one of the first things I said to him was "Check the board!" to see how empty/busy they were and luckily for us it was pretty empty. The past two times (both false alarms) they were packed. I skipped the L&D triage and was immediately taken to Birthing Suite 3. Once there the nurse asked for a urine sample, and when I went to the bathroom I noticed bloody show (my mucus plug never made an appearance), I changed into a gown and was put on the monitors. Our nursed checked me and said it was a definite rupture and I was 1cm and still very far back. I was given an IV of fluid to hydrate me at some point, not sure when.

At 2:05am I had my first painful contraction, though according to the monitors I had been having some that weren't painful at all. They were 2-3 minutes apart. The nursed called my doctor to let him know and he wanted us to go for an ultrasound to check on the position of the placenta one last time. The nurse told me I should rest and try to get some sleep, even offered me Ambien which I denied (and I'm glad I did). Instead I got out my crossword book, and B and I chatted while we watched TV.

At about 4:00am we went for the ultrasound... let me tell you having to stick your butt in the air and have a wand shoved in there while you're contracting is not fun. Unlike last ultrasound I was happy that this one was over in no time and we were back up in our room. When the nurse came in I asked if they had a birthing ball I could use, and she went to grab one. After very brief instruction, and putting the monitors on a portable box thing so I could move around I climbed on and for about the next hour bounced and breathed through my contractions. I could hear Kadie's heart rate on the monitor and when a contraction came on I bounced on the ball in time with her heartbeat. It made me feel like we were working together to get her here. I would breathe through the contractions counting slowly and went from 6 deep breaths to 10 to have to breathe through the peak.

Because of that I asked the nurse to check me at about 5:19am and she said I was 3cm and not as far back as earlier...which made me feel very good...the contractions were doing stuff!! I asked at that time for something and was given Fentanyl. I had to get back into bed and after we were all adjusted I got the Fentanyl. It took some of the pain away, and made me feel kind of drowsy...I almost drifted off to sleep, but the medication only provided that side effect and significant pain relief for half an hour, not an hour like the nurse stated. Daddy had dozed off while I continued to breathe through my contractions, did my word search, tried to relax my body, knowing that I could not have more Fentanyl for another half an hour or the epidural yet.

At 6:30am the nurse checked me again I was 90% effaced and 4-5cm!! Woo whoa! I was able to get the second dose of Fentanyl which didn't work as well as the first while I waited for the epidural.

At about 6:45am the anesthesiologist came in and after a little while (he struggled a bit because I had a shallow space according to him) my epidural was in place. About 15 minutes after that I had significant relief from contractions and was numb from right below my breasts to tingles in my toes.

A little while after that (as you can see I stopped tracking times at this point) I started getting the feeling that she was coming down and quickly. I told one of the nurses who kind of blew it off, but when I told my doctor he checked me and I was almost completely dilated and we were ready to go. After that the nurses and doctor kicked it into high gear because she was coming and fast. B said that after my OB checked me he said something like "we're going to have a baby" and at first the nurses didn't respond. He repeated himself and the one nurse actually said "We're having a baby now?!? Already?". When they started breaking down the bed I started crying because I just could not believe she was finally coming already as crazy as that sounds. I was able to push without issue, though the position I was in at first wasn't helping. I made more progress faster when I shifted up in the bed a bit and could try curling into my belly. I'm not exactly sure how long I pushed, B said it was longer than I pushed with our son (10 minutes) but no one was really watching the clock. The doctor became concerned that my heart rate was so fast while pushing and sent one of the nurses (there were 3 of them in the room) to get a bag of pitocin but by the time she came back (just a few minutes) Kadie was already out.

K was born at 7:52am (though the time on the official equipment was 7:55am so that's the time the hospital has to go by. She weighed in at 7lbs 7oz and 20 1/2" long with a full head of hair.

The doctor didn't announce gender so after they put a blanket around her they put her on my belly I lifted the blanket and I got to announce "It's a girl!" That was one of the coolest moments of my entire life! They took her to the warmer and did whatever it is they did over there while Daddy took pictures and my placenta was delivered. I took the monitors off my belly myself (darn tight annoying things, lol) shortly after she was out. We got her back, all wrapped up and with a hat on a few minutes later and I put her to breast where she latched on right away. After everything was cleaned up, my epidural was removed, etc we were left alone in L&D with our daughter for over an hour. At some point a Cardiologist came in to consult with me about my very fast heart rate and determined, much due to what I told him that it had a lot to do with my anxiety, and pain (not to mention that I had an echo that came back find in early 2008).

When we moved to a PP room they took her to the nursery and we got her back what felt like an eternity but was only about an hour or so. While we waited we called friends and family, eventually I got up to go pee who actually watched me because of the epidural (poor her), and shortly after we got K back his mom and Dad, B Jr. and his brother and sister in law with their baby (3 weeks apart from K came back to see us.